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Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

Dramatic scenes as boy's killers jailed

A man who stabbed a teenage boy to death at a western Sydney workshop will remain behind bars until at least 2031.

There were dramatic scenes in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday as Darren James McArthur was sentenced to a minimum 18 years and 10 months for murdering the 15-year-old in Minchinbury on December 5, 2011.

"Rot in hell you f***ing dog," one man stood and screamed from the public gallery as sheriffs rushed to separate him from the accused.

"Get back to the boneyard you f***ing flea."

Another man yelled, "I'll see you when you get out" as McArthur and his co-offender Darren Stewart Robertson were led from the dock.

Robertson pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the killing and was handed a minimum eight-year jail term.

Handing down his sentence, Justice Ian Harrison condemned the plan of the two men to "rough up" the owner of the workshop.

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"The plan to attack the deceased and the carrying out of that plan were senseless acts of vicious and tragic stupidity," he said.

"The deceased was young and blameless ... he had no grievance with his attacker and his attacker had none with him.

"He was unarmed and unsuspecting."

The court heard the boy's father has alleged links to the Lone Wolf bikie gang and both offenders fear reprisals in jail.

The dead boy's family and friends packed into the courtroom, sobbing as Justice Harrison described how McArthur - a self-confessed "junkie" - had walked into the still-dark workshop and fatally stabbed the victim in the chest.

The day before the killing, Justice Harrison said Robertson had told his girlfriend he'd been offered "good money" to drive down from the NSW central coast to Sydney and do a job for a mate.

"All I have to do is go to Minchinbury to rough up and scare somebody who owes some money," Robertson is said to have told her.

"I could get $2500 for doing it. It'll be fine. I've been down there and scoped it all out.

"He's a big bastard but I won't be alone."

The next morning, Robertson, 44, and McArthur, 39, drove down early to the western Sydney workshop, and McArthur walked inside.

"I was just told to ask for the owner and punch him on the mouth," McArthur would later say.

But the 15-year-old identified himself as the owner and "lunged" at him, he said, and he hit back with a metal implement he found on the workshop floor.

Justice Harrison said he was satisfied that McArthur had in fact armed himself with a serrated knife before walking inside.

He said there was nothing to suggest Robertson knew McArthur was armed.

Nevertheless, if Robertson had not been involved, "the senseless and tragic death of a young man most certainly would not have occurred", the judge said.

Robertson has been sentenced to a total 10 years and eight months, while McArthur has been sentenced to a total 25 years and two months.